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In one of the more infamous statements regarding the process in which Democrats sought to force-feed health care reform to the American people, former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi quipped, "We have to pass the bill so you can find out what is in it".

It's always nice to see our friends on the other side of the aisle actually catching up on this, delving into Obamacare now that it stands as the law of the land, and finding out it isn't exactly all wine and roses.

In a letter sent to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (linked below), 18 Senate Democrats are pleading for a delay in implementation of the $20 billion medical device tax, an Obamacare tax that has already killed jobs for companies that manufacture such medical diagnostic devices.

Starting Jan. 1, the Affordable Care Act imposes a 2.3 percent tax on medical devices with the goal of raising nearly $30 billion over the next decade.

In the letter, Democrats state that "the medical device industry has received little guidance about how to comply with the tax – causing significant uncertainty and confusion for businesses,” and requests a delay be wedged into any bill that is introduced before Congress during the fiscal cliff negotiations.

The authors of the letter then go on to lament the effects of a medical device tax, discussing the "two million high-skilled manufacturing jobs", the "net trade surplus" currently enjoyed by the industry, and the small businesses that may be effected.

Some media outlets are referring to the medical device tax as 'obscure', but to readers of FreedomWorks it has been anything but. One day removed from the election, we posted a limited but demonstrative list of companies that had specifically cited the tax as a reason for past and pending layoffs. That list included:

Welch Allyn - 275 employees

Stryker - 1,266 employees

Boston Scientific - Between 1,200 and 1,400 employees

Medtronic - 1,000 employees

Smith & Nephew - 770 employees

Abbott Labs - 700 employees

Covidien - 595 employees

Kinetic Concepts - 427 employees

St. Jude Medical - 300 employees

Hill Rom - 200 employees

The tax was so obscure apparently, that Boston Scientific CEO Ray Elliott was warning over three years ago that proposed taxes in the health care reform bill could "lead to significant job losses" for his company.

Democrats didn't seem too concerned at the time.

The hypocrisy of a group of Senators who repeatedly fed the American people tales of how good Obamacare will be for the nation, now pleading with their own to stop a major tax aspect of the bill is surreal. Many of the Democrats signing on to this delay had conservative opponents in the past election cycle that specifically ran against Obamacare and it's job-killing policies.

One specific example was also covered by FreedomWorks back in September. One of the aforementioned companies, Welch Allyn, had recently announced that they were laying off employees due to the medical device tax.

In an interview with the Syracuse Post-Standard, Steve Meyer, President and CEO at Welch Allyn, called the tax "onerous and impactful".

Meyer provided a basic mathematical model to highlight his point:

For example, a company that has $100 million in sales would pay $2.3 million in tax, Meyer explained. If that same company earns $10 million in profit that tax now represents a 23 percent dip in the bottom line, he said.

The story became a focal point of the campaigns between New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (one of the Senators now asking for a delay) and her opponent Wendy Long.

Long accused Gillibrand of being instrumental in backing Obamacare and therefore paving the path to devastating job cuts at Welch Allyn. Gillibrand responded not by arguing the merits of that claim, but by trying to censor an ad that addressed the situation. A fact-checking of the ad in question by the Democrat & Chronicle came to this conclusion:

In “Job Killer,” outside group National Horizon attacks U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, claiming she cost New York jobs. We looked at the basic facts behind this ad, and they are true.

And now, Gillibrand is one of many Democrat senators urging the medical device tax be halted. Because as it turns out, Long was indeed right from the start.

Through their efforts to get Obamacare signed into law before actually looking at the details, Democrats now seek the best of both worlds. But Obamacare is their pet health care project. They own it. Which means they now own the taxes necessary to fund this behemoth bill.

Democrats are the party of Obamacare, and in turn, the party of taxes - they just don't want you to find out.

After 5 years of working for the Dollar General Corp. I was fired. They first reduced me to part time, took away 80 hrs of vacation pay I had coming , then 10 days later I was told I was fired. I didnt know that this company was hurting so bad that they had to take away from me. I am a grandmother of 5 and they do this to me just before Christmas??? I was replaced by a part time min wage employee. This is so wrong!! Shame on you dollar general corp!

Ever since Republicans took the majority in the Senate, the use of budget reconciliation to put a repeal of ObamaCare on the president’s desk has been a juicy apple hanging just out of reach. A budget reconciliation bill, unlike an ordinary bill, only requires 51 votes to pass, meaning a simple majority of Republicans should theoretically be able to pass it without going to Democrats for help.

Advocates of government intervention in markets usually frame the debate as a binary choice: “We need government to run things so the evil corporations don’t!” It’s an effective tactic, because most people have an inherent distrust of big business, and like the idea of a less money-grubbing alternative. Most of the time, Republicans they foolishly play into the narrative, arguing that given the choice between corporate masters or government ones, we should choose the former. Unsurprisingly, few people are convinced by this, and they shouldn’t be. The whole debate is based on a false dilemma that doesn’t exist. The discussion should not be about choosing our rulers, it should be about choosing whether to be ruled in the first place. As the 19th century individualist Lysander Spooner said, “a man is no less a slave because he is allowed to choose a new master once in a term of years.”

Following the news the UnitedHealth Group, the largest insurance company in the United States, is scaling back its ObamaCare marketing and considering withdrawing from the exchanges, FreedomWorks CEO Adam Brandon commented:

The irreparable structural flaws of ObamaCare are being revealed at a frightening pace. 12 of the state insurance co-ops have failed, insurance premiums just keep rising, enrollment is predicted to be flat, the majority of newly insured Americans have actually just been shoved into Medicaid, and the insurance companies are asking for billions of dollars in taxpayer bailouts to forestall even steeper price hikes. ObamaCare is dismantling and destabilizing the entire infrastructure of our health care system, and it’s hurting real people.

The House of Representatives’ ObamaCare reconciliation bill doesn’t go far enough. The Senate now has the opportunity to improve upon it by sending legislation that fully repeals ObamaCare to the president’s desk. Unfortunately, some Senate Republicans are content to go along with the House’s timid piecemeal approach.

Last week, I wrote about how insurance companies are receiving only a fraction of the money they asked for to compensate them for losses under the Affordable Care Act, and how this was a consequence of structural weaknesses in the design of the law. Now, analysts from ratings firm Standard and Poor's are saying that the risk corridor fund charged with providing this money is nearly exhausted, and that congressional action will likely be required to refill it sometime next year.

Ever since home brewing was legalized in the late 1970s, the craft beer industry has become one of America's most vibrant examples of entrepreneurship and small business. It doesn't take much more than some barley, some hops, and a dream to start your own private microbrewery, and if you're good at it, you could become a nationally recognized brand.

An old rhetorical question asks: "If social Security is such a great deal, why is it mandatory?" A topically apt paraphrase of this would be: "if ObamaCare is so good for health care, why is the president still struggling to sell it five years after it became law?" What does it say about a policy that people refuse to take advantage of - and I use the word "advantage" very loosely - without significant arm twisting? Even though it has been made flat out illegal not to purchase health insurance, millions of people are still staying far, far away from ObamaCare's insurance exchanges, because they know that the legal penalty will actually be less painful than participating in the government-controlled health insurance market.